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20639
Federal Register
/Vol. 66, No. 79/Tuesday, April 24, 2001/Notices
separate notice of this meeting will besent to all parties on the study mailinglist.Individuals and agencies may offerinformation or data relevant to theenvironmental or socioeconomicimpacts by attending the public scopingmeeting. Comments, suggestions, andrequests to be placed on the mailing listfor announcements should be sent toStephanie J. Hall, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Los Angeles District, P.O.Box 532711, Los Angeles, CA 90053
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2325, ATTN: CESPL
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PD
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RN, or thefollowing E-mail address:shall@spl.usace.army.mil.
Availability of the Draft EIS:
The DraftEIS is scheduled to be published andcirculated in March 2002, and a publichearing to receive comments on theDraft EIS will be held after it ispublished.
Dated: March 23, 2001.
John P. Carroll,
Colonel, Corps of Engineers, District Engineer.
[FR Doc. 01
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10013 Filed 4
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23
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01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3710
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KF
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M
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSEDepartment of the Army, Corps ofEngineersIntent to Prepare Draft EnvironmentalImpact Statement for Operation andMaintenance of Lake Sidney Lanier,Georgia
AGENCY
:
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,DoD.
ACTION
:
Notice of Intent.
SUMMARY
:
The Mobile District, U.S.Army Corps of Engineers (Corps)intends to prepare a DraftEnvironmental Impact Statement (EIS)to address the full range of activitiesperformed by the Corps to operate andmaintain Lake Sidney Lanier. LakeLanier is located in the upperChattahoochee River Basin north of Atlanta, Georgia. Buford Dam forms the38,024-acre multiple purpose lakeproject, with 540 miles of shoreline and18,131 acres of lands above the fullpower pool elevation of 1070.Authorized project purposes includehydroelectric power, flood control,water quality, water supply, fish andwildlife, navigation, and recreation. AnEIS was prepared for the lake project in1974. Although the project purposesunder which Lake Lanier is operatedand maintained have not changed since1974, the overall environmental settingfor Lake Lanier has experienced majormodifications in response to the growthof the Atlanta metropolitan region. Thenew EIS is being prepared to evaluatethe continued operation andmaintenance of Lake Lanier in thecontext of the changed conditions.
ADDRESSES
:
District Engineer, U.S.Army Corps of Engineers, MobileDistrict, ATTN: CESAM
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PD
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E, P.O. Box2288, Mobile, Alabama 36628
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0001.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT
:
Mr.Glen Coffee, Environment andResources Branch, telephone (334) 690
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2729. Electronic mail may be addressedto:glendon.l.coffee@sam.usace.army.mil.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
:
1. Background
Lake Lanier is located north of Atlanta, Georgia, a region that has beengreatly impacted by the metropolitanarea
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s rapid growth. The Project
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s appealfrom both aesthetic and recreationalaspects make it one of the most highlyutilized Corps lakes in the country.Additionally, the limited amount of government-owned land surroundingthe lake has created an attractive settingfor area residents who want to live nearthe lake. These developments putincreasing pressures on the lake
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sshoreline as adjacent landowners arepermitted private boat docks andassociated facilities. Further,commercial marinas operated asconcessions on the lake are alsooperating at or near boat storagecapacity, as are the numerous recreationareas surrounding the lake.Even in the 1974 EIS, the trend forincreasing development of neighboringprivate lands around the lake wasrecognized, along with the demands thatwould be placed on the lake
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s resourcesto accommodate the explosivepopulation growth. In 1974, the Corpshad issued permits for approximately2,500 private docks. This numberincreased to around 6,500 docks at thetime the last Shoreline ManagementPlan update was prepared in 1987. In2000, the number of permits issued forprivate docks increased to 8,200. Basedon the 9-year period ending in 2000, itis anticipated that approximately 175new permits could be issued each yearinto the immediate future, with thepotential number of permits eventuallyrising to 16,000. The growth trend of  boat dock permits, concessions, andclub sites could cover more than 250miles (or 46%) of Lanier
’
s publicshoreline.The combination of private boatdocks, commercial marinas, and boatramps contribute to the over 25,000 boats that can occur on Lake Lanier atany given time, even though all boatsare not necessarily in usesimultaneously. Peak boat usage occursduring the summer months, particularlythe three principal summer holidays of Memorial Day, 4th of July, and LaborDay. A 1985 study indicated that projectwaters at that time were overused onoccasion by 71%. Application of thesame evaluation criteria to the currentnumber of boats stored on Lake Lanierand the maximum use of availablerecreation facilities indicates the level of overuse has increased today toapproximately 160%.At the same time recreational use bythe public is increasing, demands arealso being placed on the lake
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s storagevolume to meet the expanding waterneeds of the Apalachiocola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) Basin andthe neighboring Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa (ACT) Basin. Thecompetition for water between theStates of Alabama, Florida, and Georgiahas intensified. A cooperative effort has been underway for several years between the three States and the Corpsof Engineers to develop a watermanagement strategy that wouldaccommodate the interstate needs of these two basins from their respectiveheadwaters to the Gulf of Mexico. Whilethe water management strategy willeventually develop a Water AllocationFormula, the timeframe within whichthe agreement will be reached isuncertain and the scope of the formulahas not been fixed. Once agreement isreached by the States on the new WaterAllocation Formula, a comprehensivewater management plan (andaccompanying EIS) will be prepared toaddress reservoir operations in the ACFand ACT Basins. Since Lake Lanier isthe uppermost reservoir in the ACTBasin, water allocations will certainlyinfluence the manner in which LakeLanier
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s water levels will be managed inthe future. As a result, a new andseparate EIS must be developed toevaluate the range of water managementscenarios within which projectoperation and maintenance activitieswill be performed. It will not be thepurpose of this Lake Lanier operationand maintenance EIS to evaluate theeventual water management plan for theBuford/Lake Lanier project. Instead, theEIS will focus on the entire range of project operation and maintenanceactions performed within the lake andon government-owned landssurrounding the lake within theframework of varying lake levels thatcould result from implementation of afuture Water Allocation Formuladeveloped for the ACF Basin.
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